No Subject

[umcp-cs!aplcen!uucp@seismo.CSS.GOV]

>From ins_aset@jhunix Wed Dec 11 15:23:36 1985 remote from jhunix
Date:     Wed, 11 Dec 85 15:23:23 EST
From:     Susanne E Trowbridge <ins_aset@jhunix>
Subject:  Suzanne Vega

VEGA SHEDS THE FOLK LABEL 
(c) Baltimore City Paper.  Reprinted without permission.

Perhaps Suzanne Vega should have run the other way the first time someone
called her a folk singer.  Granted it's not an entirely inappropriate tag -
her roots are in New York's famed Folk City club, and her self-titled
debut album earned raves for the best girl-and-her-guitar musings since
Joni Mitchell's early LPs.

Still, the folk label will probably just serve to turn off a lot of people
who might otherwise enjoy Vega's considerable talents as a songwriter and
performer.  And judging from her November 23 performance at Goucher's
Kraushaar Auditorium, Vega's out to prove that she wants to go way beyond
that narrow niche of folk.  She and her four-piece band opted firmly for
popcraft, often reducing her acoustic guitar to just part of the mix,
contrary to the sparse sound of the album.

If the fleshed-out, full-band treatment detracted a bit from the delicacy
of Vega's compositions, the capacity crowd didn't seem to mind.  They
applauded the beginnings of the songs as well as the ends, and gave her
a rousing standing ovation.  Even Vega seemed a bit bemused by the intensity
of the reception.

Of course, she could have led the crowd in a chorus of "Tom Dooley" and
still have sounded positively modern after her opening act, Roger McGuinn.
It was a little sad to see the former Byrds frontman performing feeble
acoustic versions of classics like "R
"Turn, Turn, Turn" and "Mr. Tambourine Man"; his quavering voice only
served to make the absence of the legendary Byrds harmonies that much more
noticeable.  His dazzling fretwork on "Eight Miles High" almost saved the
show, but on the whole it was embarrassing to watch, and made Vega look
even more fresh and exciting by comparison.

If she at first seemed to embody the captivating cool of her heroine, German
actress Marlene Dietrich, she gradually turned on a winsome charm, delighting
the audience with tales of her travels through Europe.

After opening with an a capella number, "Tom's Diner," Vega launched into a
set that included all 10 songs from her album.  There was the eerie, empty
soul speaking in "Cracking," lover's games of "Freeze Tag," and a punchy
version of her should-have-been-a-hit single, "Marlene on the Wall."

She also introduced several new numbers, some very good, like the gently
rocking "Luka."  Then she announced giddily that she had written a song for
an upcoming film, \fIPretty in Pink\fR, directed by teen movie meister
John Hughes of \fIBreakfast Club\fR fame.  But Vega couldn't transcend the
wretched category of Movie Soundtrack Song - "Left of Center" was the low
point of her performance, and as she sang her hand firmly covered the strings
of her guitar, as if she had to will herself not to play along, just for
this one song.

Since she has been touring both alone and with her band, it is hard to tell
where she'll go from here.  If a little more electric guitar and a tougher
beat will get her a wider audience, that's ok; her clear, pretty voice 
doesn't need to change a bit.  Vega is simply too good to be written off
with a confining label like "folk singer."